I ask because my son and I were at a public range this afternoon and a fellow next to us was shooting a full-auto shorty AR in 7.62x39. He noticed my Woo that I was taking out of the case and asked about it. We ending up making a trade of a full mag through my Woo for a full mag through his mg.

While he was showing us his mg, I asked if it was a dealer sample (the lower was a modern style with the little pictographs around the selector). He said no, it had a registered Lightning Link in it. He then went on to explain the operation of the rifle to my son (he got to shoot it - and was already very well acquainted with operating an AR but listened politely anyway). Part of this fellow's explanation was about putting the selector in the semi position for semi-auto fire and then to the auto position for full-auto.

My son proceeded to burst his way through the mag and had a great time. The fellow put a mag through my Woo and was similarly happy.

Only when I just got home did it occur to me (or maybe I'm mistaken?) that a Lightning Link cannot provide select fire. I called my son (at his mum's house for the night) and asked if the guy had indeed explained it as being select fire and he said yes. I then asked if he had shot the couple of single rounds that he put through the rifle on the semi position and he said no, he had kept it on auto the whole time and had just carefully squeezed those shots off.

Anyway, it's all got me wondering: Is my memory of how a LL works completely wrong? I know that a DIS works just fine with M16 innards and provides select functionality, but the guy was clear that it was a LL. Or maybe he isn't clear himself on how it works? That seems unlikely, though, given that he said he works in a gun shop on the weekends and has clearly spent a lot of coin on a couple of little pieces of metal. ??

GOVT1911

October 10, 2011, 09:14

Correct. LL only provides FA fire, no select fire capability. You can, with practice, fire single rounds with LL installed, but it's not select fire.

I had a buddy years ago that had a registered LL and we played around with it quite a bit. Took some to get it working smoothly, but when it did, it worked well enough.

rochte

October 10, 2011, 11:42

Thanks, that's what I thought. Maybe the guy genuinely didn't know this or maybe he misspoke. Or maybe we weren't really shooting a rifle with a LL at all - I dunno now.

Big Dog

October 10, 2011, 13:27

The basic lightning link AKA Auto-connector s/b Auto-DISconnector pulls the disconnector back when the bolt comes all the way forward, assuming the trigger is still pulled back. This gives SAFE and FULL only.

However, there is a kit that uses different fire control parts to allow SAFE / SEMI and FULL just like a standard M-16.

If he sprung for a pictogaph lower, he might have also spent the $150 for the SEF kit as well...